News

RATS Cliff Dale Champs

12/04/08

On Saturday 12 April the RATS team again won the Cliff Dale rescue competitions held at the Omaka Scout Camp in Christchurch. See Slideshow.

RATS entered a team of 10 members with 8 competing in any one event. The team included our latest team members, Sara, Chloe Christelle, Brownyn and Helen, led by James and joined by Rowan, Janelle, Paul and Geoff.

There were a total of 5 teams, including one from Invercargill CD, competing over 7 events.

Our first event was one of the more challenging with the big wooden 40 ft ladder needed to access the top of one of the flying fox towers. A dummy was then loaded into a backboard stretcher and lowered using a 2 point lower. This exercise got us of to a good start, competing within time and with positive comments from the umpire. From here we went onto a vehicle recovery from the river using a tirfor winch connected to a 3:2:1 picket system. Next we had the radio, GPS exercise which was set up a little like geocaches with information that needed to be communicated to a site control. No real problems with these. After morning tea we had the rubble pile stretcher pass which was hard work in the sun but we got it completed in time. Following this was another traditional ladders and lowers exercise utilising another flying fox tower. This required a ladder slide up and re-rigging for a single point down. The team worked well and again finished within the allotted time. After lunch the team and its friendly spar had to negotiate an obstacle course before heading to the final event- First Aid. Brian and Jude were umpiring this one and the scenario of three people in a car crash kept us all busy with one arresting requiring CPR, another with multiple fractures and the third with frac femur and various other injuries.

At the end of the day the team came away with the Gale Ladder trophy, the leadership trophy for James and the overall prize- the Cliff Dale. It was great for the new members to slot straight in, but also to see the other teams working really well with some big improvements from previous years and trophies spread around.